The Paratrooper Generals: Matthew Ridgway, Maxwell Taylor, and the American Airborne from D-Day through Normandy

by Mitchell Yockelson

Overview

Generals during World War II usually stayed to the rear, but not Matthew Ridgway and Maxwell Taylor. During D-Day and the Normandy campaign, these commanders of the 82nd “All-American” and the 101st “Screaming Eagle” Airborne Divisions refused to remain behind the lines and stood shoulder-to-shoulder with their paratroopers in the thick of combat. Jumping into Normandy during the early hours of D-Day, Ridgway and Taylor fought on the ground for six weeks of combat that cost the airborne divisions more than 40 percent casualties. The Paratrooper Generals is the first book to explore in depth the significant role these two division commanders played on D-Day, describing the extraordinary courage and leadership they demonstrated throughout the most important American campaign of World War II.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780811738552
Publisher:	Stackpole Books
Publication date:	07/21/2020
Pages:	320
Sales rank:	1,073,772
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Mitchell A. Yockelson is a military historian and archivist who has received the Army Historical Foundation’s Distinguished Writing Award. His books include Borrowed Soldiers: Americans under British Command, 1918 and Forty-Seven Days: How Pershing’s Warriors Came of Age to Defeat the German Army in World War I, as well as introductory biographies of Ulysses Grant and Douglas MacArthur. A former professor at the U.S. Naval Academy, he is an investigative archivist with the National Archives and Records Administration. He lives in Annapolis, Maryland.

Table of Contents

List of Maps v

Acknowledgments vii

Preface ix

Prologue: June 6, 1944 xiii

1 General Lee's Airborne 1

2 Matthew Bunker Ridgway 9

3 Maxwell Davenport Taylor 17

4 War 25

5 The Birth of American Airborne Divisions 31

6 "Become a Paratrooper!" 39

7 James Gavin 47

8 Sicily and Italy: A Dress Rehearsal for Normandy 55

9 Eisenhower 63

10 Planning for Neptune 71

11 The American Airborne in England 79

12 C-47s 85

13 Gliders 91

14 Eisenhower's Parachuting Correspondents 95

15 Brereton's 9th Air Force 103

16 The Unbearable Burden of a Conscience 109

17 "A Rendezvous with Destiny" 119

18 Pathfinders 123

19 Readying the Skytrains 129

20 The Paratrooper Generals Make Final Preparations 135

21 Delay 141

22 The Paratrooper Generals Take Off 151

23 Scattered in Streams and Cow Pastures 159

24 The All-Americans on D-Day 173

25 The Screaming Eagles on D-Day 185

26 The Airborne Angels of Mercy 197

27 The End of a Very Long Day 203

28 Crossing the La Fière Causeway 213

29 Seizing the Carentan Causeway 219

30 Carentan 229

31 Ridgway's Final Attacks 237

32 Conclusion 241

Appendix: Order of Battle: June 6, 1944 245

Notes 247

Selected Bibliography 267

Index 275